


Explains Everything

by Shulik



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-10-28 07:49:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/305562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shulik/pseuds/Shulik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fed up with the life of a slayer- Buffy strikes out on her own, taking Dawn with her. Life is strange though, and relatives are persistent- ending up in Forks is the last thing that Buffy would have ever thought she wanted, but it might just be exactly what she needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Family Night

**Family Night**

“Hey Buffy! You’ve got mail sitting on the countertop!” Dawn’s voice yelled out somewhere from upstairs as her older sister sighed. The girl had just turned eighteen and she _still_ behaved like a young teen sometimes.

Buffy dumped her bag and papers on the high chair nearest to the door and went into the kitchen, shrugging off her jacket with one hand while the other one was opening the freezer and taking out an extra large everything toppings pizza. The pounding of feet alerted her to her sister’s presence and Dawn squeezed her five foot nine frame past Buffy as she reached for some chocolate milk.

“Oh hey cool, we’re having pizza for dinner” Dawn was a lot more optimistic about life now that she didn’t have to share her sister with everybody that needed Buffy to be their general.

Buffy smiled at her much taller sibling “we’ve been having pizza for the last week in a row, you don’t have to act like you still like it.”

Dawn huffed and then grinned unrepentantly “Buff, you know I don’t care what we eat. I just want to spend time with my older sister,” she jumped up and with a throwback to her younger, coltish grace she enveloped her sister in a hug. The Summers sisters stood like that for a while and then Dawn jumped back to her seat, sprinkling cinnamon on top of her chocolate milk with a well practiced motion.

Buffy wrinkled her nose “ewww, how can you drink that? Doesn’t it make the milk go bad?”

“Nope, if you drink within the first five minutes before the cinnamon completely dissolves it gives it this nice foamy taste” as usual, her little sister’s tastebuds were completely wacked, either by funky monk engineering or by some cosmic joke that the Powers were surely laughing at to this day.

Buffy moved towards the mail on the counter, flipping through every letter she casually asked “Have you heard anything from the guys lately?”

Dawn stilled her movements of joy at consuming her yucky beverage of choice and looked at her sister carefully.

“Sorry, I haven’t talked to them since LA.”

 _Two years ago._

After the destruction of Sunnydale, when the bus full of injured potentials turned into healing slayers rolled into LA, the first place that they looked to for help was Angel who was dealing with his own apocalypse. She and Faith were the first to volunteer to help him, while Giles and Xander refused anything to do with ‘Deadboy’ as Xander kept referring to him. That was the second big rift in their relationship. The first one was of course the moment when they decided to kick her out of her own house, not content with her style of leadership they voted to disgrace the only person who had stood between annihilation and them time and again. Sure Buffy came back, sure she saved the day but after that night when she had felt as the lowest of the low, that night when she questioned her living purpose- she never quite forgave her friends, the ones that could betray her so easily and then act as if nothing happened.

During their stay in LA, it was Giles who was the most excited about reconstructing the new Council, about starting over the support structure for the hundreds of slayers awakening all over the earth. Willow was busy, basking in the glow of newfound love with the eighteen year old Kennedy to worry about the fact that the oldest slayer alive only came down to join the others for meal times and spent the rest of her time cooped up in her room, talking with either Dawn or Angel. Buffy’s sister was the only one to come up and apologize for her betrayal, sobbing tears of remorse she crawled into bed with her and spent the whole night talking, rehashing over old wrongs, mending broken fences and bonding more than they had in the previous three years. Angel, beautiful brooding Angel was another surprise. Buffy no longer looked at him with longing, with the faint hope that someday he would be the one to ‘taste her ready cookie dough’. As stupid as the analogy had been, it was right. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life waiting for him to forgive himself, she was twenty three years old and she was tired of living in the shadows.

So Buffy planned, with her sister backing up her every move she planned for the rest of her life. They talked about their hopes and dreams, what they wanted most from the world and Buffy realized now that all the slayers were activated, she really didn’t have any obligation to stay with the rest of the gang. The gang who were too busy ignoring the leader they so easily betrayed, they weren’t factored into Buffy and Dawn’s plans. Buffy talked about how she wanted to finish her psychology degree, despite that evil bitch Maggie Walsh she still felt passionate about helping people. Dawn talked about her love of art, her feeling of closeness to their mother whenever she was in an art gallery or a museum. She talked about the fine arts programs in various colleges and Buffy, for the first time in a long time, *really* listened to her sister.

It was Faith that surprised them the most though. She and Robin came up into Buffy’s room one night, holding hands and carrying a briefcase. She grinned her usual cocky smirk and then proceeded to destroy Buffy’s expectations of the old Faith Lehane and became somebody much closer. Somebody that Buffy owed her new life to.

She sat on the bed between the two sisters as Robin leaned casually against the doorway, keeping an eye out for any eavesdroppers.

“Faith,” Buffy cautiously greeted her sister slayer who had been conspicuously absent from most of the meetings.

“Hey B,” her face fresh from the harsh makeup she normally wore, Faith was beautiful and happy as she shared a smile with Robin.

“Listen B, I know that I never got the chance to apologize for what happened, but I am. Sorry, I mean. I’m sorry.” She laughed a little self consciously.

Buffy smiled at her gently and squeezed her hand, “ I know that you never wanted that to happen. And you did apologize, on the porch.”

Faith cleared her throat and opened the briefcase.

“Yeah thanks. Listen, I know the rest of these idiots are planning for you to take the lead on building the new council but I somehow don’t think that’s really your cup of tea,” she took out a bunch of papers.

“I know that you really liked working that counseling job, and despite everything the hellmouth threw at ya- you were good at it,” at that point Robin came closer and sat on a chair by the bed.

“Buffy you’ve dealt with everything that high school could throw at you, I really believe you’ve made a big difference in these children’s lives.” The bald black man smiled at Buffy, their previous animosity was almost gone.

Buffy could only gape as Dawn took her hand and sat squeezing it in nervous anticipation.

Faith continued. “So me and Robs here, we’ve decided to give you a little going away present. There’s a high school in San Diego hiring a guidance counselor, and well- Robin nominated you for the position. We sent all your old papers into there and you have an interview next Wednesday.”

Buffy couldn’t speak as she just threw herself at her sister slayer, hugging all the air out of her. If Faith had been a normal girl, the blonde would probably have broken a couple of her ribs with the force of her hug.

That night was the biggest scandal the Scooby gang had ever had, complete with lashing out at each other, accusations being thrown back and forth. Nothing was getting resolved, and at four in the morning Buffy had stood up from where an angry Xander was still blaming her for Anya’s death and told them that whether they liked it or not- she was leaving, and taking Dawn with her. There was nothing for her there anymore, she didn’t need to lead them, didn’t need to protect them. And more importantly, she didn’t want to.

That was two years ago and the lines of communication still remained closed between the former best friends.

 

“Buffy, Buffy, Buffy!” her sister’s voice brought the blonde slayer out of her reverie.

She smiled at Dawn “sorry, zoned out there for a second.”

Dawn snorted as she began opening the mail “Yeah, more like for five minutes.”

The older, more mature sister stuck her tongue out as she began setting the table.

Dawn’s voice stopped her right as she was pouring orange juice into the pitcher.

“Hey Buff, you should probably read this letter.”

“My hands are busy, just read it out loud to me,” Buffy replied while continuing to set dishes down. Living with her mom taught her about the importance of aesthetics, so the sisters always had a small bouquet of fresh flowers on their dining table. Buffy smiled as she smelled the fresh, summery scent coming from the orchids.

“Buff, I really think you should read it yourself but oh well...Here’s the gist of it, a high school in Washington is asking you to come for an open counseling position. They’re even prepared to throw in a university scholarship for you and a partial scholarship for me for next year,” Dawn’s voice rose in excitement.

Buffy stopped in her tracks, money had been alright but now that she was finishing her Bachelor’s and thinking about doing a Master’s in Youth Psychology and Dawn was finishing up her junior year of high school, they really needed to start thinking of their options on how to pay for their respective educations.

“Where’s the high school?” Buffy didn’t let her voice rise in pitch, knowing that celebrating too early could result in catastrophe as Murphy really had a thing for taking all the happy out of her life. Two years away from the hellmouth and Buffy would rather be cautious than sorry.

“Forks, Washington. Hold on,” Dawn jumped off the chair and raced for her laptop in the living room. Bringing it back with her she was already reading the statistics of the town.

“Everything looks good, it’s a dinky little town with only about four thousand people but it’s really close to the University of Washington where we’d be going to school. Plus, it has a really good fine arts program going on at their high school” Dawn grinned as she raised her eyes to her sister.

“Buffy with the salary they’re offering you, we’d be able to save up so much more than we’re saving here. Everything’s always cheaper in small towns, “ she imparted this nugget of wisdom with a sage nod of the head.

“Let me see that letter,” Buffy raised her hand for the job invitation. Looking over it, a twinkle of real excitement began to sparkle in her eyes.

“I’m going to call Faith, see what Robin says about the school. We’ll decide once we get all the info.” She was still looking at the letter, a look of wonderment crept onto her features.

“Buffy, this could really be the answer to all our questions. No more supernatural, no more weirdness- just the Summers sisters making it in the wild.”

Buffy grinned, “I hardly think that Washington constitutes as the wild Dawnie.”

“Yeah well, they don’t have a mall in Forks. You have to drive thirty minutes to get to the best shopping, but apparently they have some really cool boutiques once you get there.” Dawn murmured, aware of her and her sister’s need for retail therapy.

Buffy mock gasped and raised a hand to her chest “My Lord! However will we survive without a mall in town?” unconsciously she was almost parroting Giles but Dawn didn’t feel the need to call her on it.

The oven dinged and as Buffy brought the pizza to the table, she smiled for real this time.

“We’ll see Dawnie, but if everything turns out to be okay- then this could really be the answer we’ve been looking for.”

Dawn flipped her waist length hair over her shoulder and pronounced dramatically, “Forks doesn’t know what’s coming. Cause watch out Washington! The Summers girls are coming to town!”

She and Buffy dissolved into helpless giggles at her overdramatic posturing and settled down into their dinner, full of joy, jokes and more love than most sisters shared.


	2. Welcome to town

Thank God Buffy’s driving had improved over the years, she could now compensate for the fact that other drivers didn’t have her supernatural reflexes and she wasn’t such a menace behind the wheel anymore.

Dawn smiled behind her Ray Bans as she stuck her hand out of the window, the warm wind whipped through her hair as she reveled in the feeling of sunlight on her skin. Buffy was humming one of her favourite songs as the radio was cranked up to the loudest level it could go to, a Uhaul connected to their car full of their posessions trailed after them like a big flag signaling to everybody that they were moving. Dawn smiled, she knew that she would have most likely been bitchy about yet another move but all she could do was bask in the feeling of happiness that something was going right for them in such a major way.

Buffy’s interview with the principal of Forks High School was conducted over the phone, and combined with her glowing recommendations and letters of support from her students- it was a no brainer that the school was paying for them to move from California to Washington. They decided to do the road trip thing, both of them had their licenses and could take turns driving if the other one got too tired. They had lots of junk foody goodness, stocking up on chocolate to keep them hyper on sugar and turkey sandwiches that Dawn made before heading out for their new life.

Dawn glanced at her sister who was singing along to the radio, her surprisingly pretty voice rising and falling along to the song. Buffy caught her look and grinned in happiness, winking at her before signaling a turn into Clallam county. Their cherry red Pontiac Firebird revved as it hugged the curves, the cosmopolitan feeling of the big city giving way to the more countryside scenery of trees and gorgeous nature.

Buffy turned down the radio, “Dawnie I can smell the sea.” The look of happiness on her face was rarely seen in Sunnydale and Dawn was glad that her sister was smiling a lot more often these days.

Dawn laughed, “Buffy, you know that we’re not in California anymore. You can’t go tanning on the beach here.”

Buffy shrugged unrepentant, and smiled again “ I don’t care, as long as I have water near where we live- I can die a happy woman.”

Impulsively, the younger sister leaned across her seat and gave Buffy a peck on the cheek. Buffy glowed with happiness and carefree goodwill as she smiled at Dawn, turning up the radio they followed the signs into the town of Forks.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Carlisle Cullen stood in his kitchen staring out into the trees surrounding his house, his arm slung around his wife Esme as they both contemplated what the arrival of their last living descendant would bring.

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing bringing them into this world?” Carlisle murmured pressing a kiss to Esme’s temple. “I mean with the Volturi and Victoria - if they find out that vampires are hiding living human descendants, there's bound to be trouble. Am I being selfish wanting Buffy somewhere close?”

Esme shook her head “no honey, she’s family. Besides, we need to see what’s going on in her life. Why there are records of her death but she’s enrolled in school. We need to make sure that she’s safe, and we’ll do whatever it takes to keep her that way.”

Carlisle smiled and hugged her closer to him, as he turned around to face his assembled children- he noticed a look of distress on Alice’s pixie like features.

“I still can’t see anything about her, it’s like there’s a green mist surrounding everything she does,” Alice complained while Jasper tried to ease her worries.

“Don’t worry, we’ve received word that she’s accepted the counseling position and that she’s bringing her little sister with her. She will be going to the University of Washington to finish her degree and Dawn will be enrolling with you all at Forks High.”

He and Esme had kept careful tabs on their descendants but the fact that Buffy had a younger sister still came as a shock to them. Joyce was their direct descendant, a many times granddaughter that died leaving her two children alone with a deadbeat father offering no support to them. Carlisle tried sending money to them as a long lost relative, but he never received confirmation that they received anything.

Now that Buffy and Dawn would be coming to live in Forks, he and his family would make sure to keep closer tabs on their only living relatives.

He looked contemplatively at Rosalie who was busily trying to chart the route they would most likely be taking on a map that Emmett had somehow procured. He was very surprised at the ease that she accepted her new human siblings as compared to the animosity she still felt for Bella. When he had privately talked to her about, she explained that it was because they were already family. They were the last living proof that a Cullen had walked the earth once upon a time.

Carlisle smiled, Rosalie had stopped thinking of herself as a Hale a long time ago and firmly cemented her place as a Cullen daughter when he ‘adopted’ her into his little makeshift family.

Edward was brooding on the couch, his mood entirely dark ever since he prevented Jasper from attacking Bella at her birthday. Jasper had only sensed the blood with the thought of attack barely formulating in his head and Edward was on him, snarling in his rage at protecting his mate. He had forgiven his brother knowing that his control around humans was weak, but all his thoughts these days centered on the fact that Bella didn’t belong in their world. She was too fragile, too easily broken.

Carlisle sat down next to Esme and tried to focus on the movie playing on the television, no matter what happened Buffy and Dawn were coming to Forks, things were set in motion and no matter how much he would have liked- there was very little he could do to change the course of events to come.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charlie knocked on Bella’s door again, hearing her muffled sobs his heart broke again as he thought about how much he would love to punch that little Edward kid.

“Bella you need to eat,” he called out to her.

His shy, closed nature would never permit him to talk about how worried he was, about how much he had come to love his daughter living with him. So he spoke about the safest and most practical concern he could, his daughter’s need for sustenance. After coming back from the Cullens Bella spent three days locked in her room, barely eating the diner bought food Charlie would bring to her door. He knew that his cooking was garbage, so rather than make the situation worse by feeding his daughter barely edible burned eggs- Charlie Swan came by the Forks diner at three every day, picking up his day’s order and carrying it home to feed his broken hearted daughter.

“Bella please…” he called out softly, something in his voice must have gone through and the door opened. Eyes red and puffy, hair limp against her shoulders- his beautiful little girl stood there, pitiful, broken and sad.

Involuntarily his arm came to snake her into a hug that he wouldn’t have tried under different circumstances. Thankfully she squeezed as tight as she could into him, almost trying to burrow into her dad’s embrace.

As they moved into her room, still hugging, he could see the signs of Bella’s mood everywhere. Clothes strewn around, a broken vase lying on the floor. He sat his daughter down on her bed and put the bag of food beside her. He bent down and using a pan carefully picked up the shards of the vase, so that Bella wouldn’t hurt herself.

He sat down next to her on the bed.

“How’re you doing?”

Bella didn’t say anything at first, just continued listlessly chewing on a French fry.

“He still hasn’t called,” her voice was soft, hoarse with crying.

Charlie sighed. “Have you tried calling him?”

“Yeah, he’s not picking up” that Edward kid was definitely dead the next time Charlie Swan would come across him.

He ran his fingers through his daughter’s hair, softly stroking the auburn tresses he asked her “What happened on your birthday?”

Bella shook her head “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Charlie frowned as a thought occurred to him, in a voice barely controlled with anger he asked “Did he hurt you?”

Bella jumped up, crossing her arms across her chest in a subconsciously defensive gesture. “God no dad! We just had a fight…”

Charlie looked at his daughter carefully, he knew that she wasn’t telling the truth but he couldn’t really press further.

“Alright. Listen Bells, I have to go pick up the new guidance counselor for the school. She’s coming into town today and I need to show her the house, the Realtor sick- so I have to be the town’s welcome wagon.”

It was a testament to his nature that Charlie thought nothing about filling in for the town’s only Realtor, it was so rare that newcomers came into Forks that he thought the introduction to the sheriff right off the bat would be a good welcome.

“Do you want to come with?” his eyes held hope that she would accept the offer, maybe come out of her room and spend time with her dad.

Bella chewed her lip and then slowly nodded. “Yeah let me just change quickly, and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

His heart jumped in joy as he smiled eagerly, “alright, just don’t take too long. They’ve been driving from California apparently.”

“What kind of crazy Californians would move to a town where it’s sunny only a couple of weeks out of the year?” Bella asked moving to pick out a clean sweatshirt from her closet.

Charlie laughed, thankful that his daughter was asking such an inane question.

“The kind you’re going to meet.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And in the woods outside her house, Jacob Black stood looking at her window. He saw Charlie hug her and the rage that was threatening to choke him these last couple of days went down a notch. He hated the vampires with a passion, he hated seeing the girl he loved so hurt. A soft growl escaped his chest as he moved further into the woods, running to let out the excess of adrenaline in his system.


	3. Welcome to town (part two)

Bella leaned forward, on the passenger side of her dad’s police car as they pulled up to the diner where they were supposed to meet the Summers sisters.

A bright red convertible sat there, what sounded like Spanish guitar interspersed with house music was blaring out of the speakers. As Bella hopped out of the car she could see a long jean clad leg bopping in time with the music, the owner of said leg was sitting too far in the car for her to see who it was- the younger sister or the guidance counselor.

Bella supposed that like Mrs.Simpson, the new counselor would either be a grandmotherly old lady or a forty something married woman with no time to spare for her students. Neither Forks nor Phoenix had good high school counselors and so Bella really didn't have any hope that this one would turn out to be different. The music turned off and the owner of the jean clad leg stood out of the car, all long limbed grace that made Bella feel more self conscious than ever. Taller than her by a good four, five inches the girl looked to be about her age. Long, dark chestnut hair fell in waves down her back and a pair of hipster sunglasses were perched on her head. A corset style tank top showcased the girl’s cleavage, leaving Bella painfully aware of the lack of hers. Based on initial appearances, the new girl was definitely not somebody that Bella would be friends with. Bright blue eyes focused on Charlie and her and a surprisingly warm grin lit up the girl’s face.

“Hey, you must be Sheriff Swan” she grinned at Charlie and shook his hand.

Turning around to Bella she gripped her hand and winked “this must be Bella right? And I thought my name was a little strange, I mean Dawn- come on? Who names their kid that besides hippies and artists? No offence by the way.” She laughed and then snorted “Don’t mind me, my sense of humour is a little fucked up so I find the weirdest things to be funny.”

Bella laughed weakly feeling a tad overwhelmed from the girl’s enthusiasm.

The diner door swung open as a small girl emerged, carrying two large to go cups and a bag full of what was probably the town’s famous burgers. The girl came closer and Bella could see that she was actually a young woman, it was just her size that made her look younger than she was. Long blonde hair was pulled into a high bun, sunglasses sat perched on her head holding her bangs in place. Hazel green eyes looked a little wary as the woman came closer to them, but relaxed as soon as they witnessed Dawn laughing at something that Charlie said. Wearing a red leather jacket and a pair of black tight jeans, the woman didn’t look old enough to work in a high school.

“Hey Buff, check it out- I met the sheriff!” Dawn bounced a little as she pointed at Charlie, a sweep of her overexcited arm almost poking out Bella’s eye. “Oh shit, I’m sorry,” she quickly tried to ascertain that Bella wasn’t hurt, “oh God, sorry for swearing.”

Dawn promptly turned pink and shook her head with exasperation at what Bella thought to be the funniest diatribe she had ever heard. Buffy frowned, stepping before her sister after shooting her a look- one that translated universally. It was the look of the scolding older sibling, or a _mom_ \- Bella thought privately.

“Dawn, be careful. You could’ve put Bella’s eye out, and you owe two dollars to the swear jar” she smiled as she handed her sister the cup. “Here’s some green tea to calm you down," Buffy wrinkled her nose as she handed the drink over, "though I really shouldn’t have let you get this caffeinated.”

“Buffyy- I’m eighteen years old, chances are there are worse things for me to be addicted to. Especially in this day and age,” Dawn huffed.

Buffy smiled indulgently “humor your overprotective sister and don’t put thoughts into my head. I already worry about you and too much coffee, I don’t need to start worrying about you on drugs.”

She turned to their gaping welcoming committee. Neither Bella or her dad had expected the new guidance counselor to be so young or so beautiful. “Hi, I’m Buffy Summers and I’m guessing my little sister’s already introduced herself” she shook both Charlie and Bella’s hands.

“How’d you know my name?” Bella asked, the very attractive sisters made her feel awkward and gawky and she felt like the first time she had laid eyes on the gorgeous family of vampires.

“We asked ahead who’d be meeting us, and the Realtor told us that the Police Chief had a daughter named Bella,” Dawn grinned. “Ipso facto you’re Bella.”

“Where are your things?” Charlie asked, steering the conversation in the needed direction.

“Buffy here is an amateur race car driver, we got here ahead of schedule and parked the Uhaul by the house.” Dawn grinned as her sister gave her a glare.

“We’re both a little wired so we thought that we’d try to take in the town before heading home to start unpacking,” Buffy opened her car door and leaned on it.

“Do you mind showing us around? Or do you have somewhere to be?”

Charlie smiled as he glanced down to gauge Bella’s reaction. “What do you think Bells? Do you have to get back yet?”

Bella started at being put on the spot, her fear of attention climbing its way to the surface as she panicked at having to answer people she didn’t know all that well.

Dawn slapped her hands on her hips as she winked at Bella, “come on… Just a little tour, and I promise not to annoy you too much with my over caffeinated babbling. You can tell me what the young, hip people do for fun here. Not like Buffy wants to know,” she waited for Bella’s answer.

Buffy called out in mock indignation “hey! I’m young, I’m hip!”

Inadvertently Bella laughed, surprised by the first sound of joy to escape her lips in three days. She nodded her head in agreement. The two sisters somehow made her feel better, their playful natures were a a welcome contrast to the darkness enveloping her world currently. She decided to take a chance, and maybe make a new friend.

Buffy grinned a warm smile at Bella, having sensed the girl’s innate reserve she decided to try to bring Bella out of her shell. She could still see evidence of a long hard cry on the girl's face, eyes filled with popped blood vessels and a ponytail signaling that Bella didn’t have the desire to do anything about her hair. All signs showing a great deal of distress, and Buffy’s chosen calling demanded that she try to cheer up the shy girl. She knew that Dawnie would do everything she could to put a smile on Bella’s face, her need to make people happy came straight from their mother.

She called out to Charlie, “we saw the town hall a little while away. How about we meet you there and we can take a walk around the town center, and you show us what’s cool around here.”

Charlie smiled and nodded “Alright,” it was beginning to look like Dawn would be a good influence on Bella. Hopefully a little of the girl’s enthusiasm would rub off on his daughter.

Dawn crowed in delight “Well alright then! Let’s get this show on the road, we’re going to paint the town red!”

Her sister laughed as she got in the driver’s seat, both Dawn and Buffy quickly shut their doors as the music started up again. The engine revved as the car quickly pulled out of the parking lot, tires squealed as the convertible flew out onto the road.

Bella shook her head in amusement, Buffy the race car driver indeed. Looking up at her dad's smile she asked him "So what do you think of the town's newest additions?"

"Don't know yet," her dad was as talkative as ever. He opened the driver's door and sat down.

Bella slowly walked to her side of the car.

"I like them," she very quietly whispered to herself, the small smile still playing on her lips as her dad pulled out after the long gone Summers sisters.


	4. Chapter 4

Their convertible was flying the curves of the town, the road whipping past them in a blur of shocked faces and upturned leaves. Dawn whooped as Buffy laughed and took another turn, the car used to her maneuvering followed her body’s commands as they shocked yet another bystander. Finally she spotted the Town Hall, and with a great whoop of joy and a faintly protesting squeal of the tires they managed to park the car without injuring any bystanders. Dawn climbed out and stretched her body, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet with adrenaline.

“Buff, that was awesome!”

Her sister shook her head ruefully, “I think that was a mistake. I’m supposed to be making a good impression on the townspeople instead of joyriding with my underage sister.”

“Oh pish posh, at least this will be an advance warning for them to jump out of the way when they see the car coming,” Dawn grinned and then suddenly a random thought struck her.  
“Is that why the car’s bright red? Cause you want people to be warned ahead of time?”

Buffy winked at her, “That’s a secret you’ll never learn my young padawan.”

At that moment the Swans pulled up next to their car, Bella hopped out and went their way. 

Already a little more comfortable with the sisters than initially, she smiled and asked them “What were you guys doing? I think half the people in the square are looking at you.”

Dawn grinned and leaned with one elbow on Bella’s shoulder, due to their height difference it was actually a pretty comfy position.

“Yoda here has been teaching me all about scaring tactics and how apparently our car exists for the sole purpose of warning people to avoid us.”

Buffy stuck her tongue out at her sister as Bella laughed.

Charlie came up to them, his face alight at the smile his daughter was wearing.

“So where do you ladies feel like going first?”

Buffy smiled at him “Show us whatever you think we should see. We’re pretty enthusiastic people, plus Dawn’s an optimist- you show her a puddle, and she’ll think it’s a pretty lake.”

Dawn grinned and nodded her head “Yup, we’re pretty easy to please. Lead on Sheriff,” she held out her arm to Bella who entwined it with her own and so skinny elbows touching they began walking, Dawn never stopping with her pithy commentary and Bella occasionally emitting a soft laugh that warmed her father’s heart they began their scenic tour of Forks, Washington.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Alice’s head snapped up as she was hit with a vision. She gasped as a beautific smile lit her features “They’re here. Oh they’re beautiful…”

Carlisle grasped Esme’s hand as she shook with excitement, finally the Summers girls had come to Forks. They had been worrying the whole afternoon, a little shocked that Alice couldn’t get a read on their descendants and now, after hours of waiting they were finally getting a glimpse.

Alice’s unseeing eyes followed the vision in her head, Jasper was holding her hand keeping her grounded as she followed the sisters’ antics with delight, her second sight allowing her to witness everything about them.

“They’re really funny, young. Buffy drives like Edward, and Dawn’s a bit like Emmett- very enthusiastic about everything.”

The whole family relaxed at her words and even Edward broke out a rare smile at the thought that a living ‘relative’ had a characteristic of his. Emmett grinned widely, he had missed his little sister terribly, she was so like him in temperament. Maybe this Dawn would remind him of her, maybe she’d even become a friend.

Alice gasped as her sight returned to normal. “We have to go to town, now.”

“What? Why?” Rosalie asked jumping up, she would never say it out loud but she was looking forward to hearing more about these relatives of theirs.

Alice’s eyes twinkled as she replied “We have to, just trust me.”

Rosalie’s eyes narrowed as she glared at her sister “Do I at least have time to change?”

Alice shook her head “Rose you look beautiful, we need to go *now*.”

The blonde huffed a little as she jumped up from her resting place with Emmett, pulling her mate up by his hand but they all knew that it was just for show. That Rosalie Hale was just as excited as the rest of them.

As Esme pulled Carlisle out the door, chattering happily about the girls and what they were like, Edward moved to follow them out of the house his eyes heavy with longing at the sight of his siblings with their respective mates. Alice gently grasped his elbow as she led him away from the others.

“Alice?” she was mentally reciting the phonetic alphabet and Edward couldn’t get to her thoughts as much as he might have liked to.

“Edward, you’re my brother and I love you,” her eyes were downcast as she said this. “But you probably shouldn’t go.”

“Why?” he asked, the golden yellow of his own turning a little darker in his confusion. What was going on?

Alice’s pixie features were sad as she met his gaze, “We’re going to meet them in town, Dawn needs to see us.”

Edward frowned, why wouldn’t she want him to meet their relatives?

Alice nervously licked her lips, “Bella’s with them. She’s happy.”

He pulled his arm out of her grip in a jerking movement, shock coloring his features.

Almost like from nowhere, Jasper blurred to his wife’s side, calm features studying Edward for any signs of distress that might turn physical.

Alice sighed as she put a restraining arm on Jasper. “Stop Jaz,” she turned to her brother “she’s smiling and laughing. Please don’t ruin this day for her, it’ll be hard enough to see us without you being there.” Her voice dropped an octave as she entreated “She deserves all the happiness she can get Edward.”

He looked at her deeply as she opened her thoughts to him, he could see the vision as she saw it, his beautiful Bella laughing as she walked with a tall dark-haired girl and her father ahead of them. His heart dropped as he realized that he wouldn’t be going with his family, he didn’t want to bring any more hurt to her than he already had. He didn’t know if he would be breaking up with her, but the break he needed to take to think about their relationship was already costing him too much. He nodded his agreement to Alice as he walked calmly to the open windows, jumping out to the nearest branch he headed for the forest tops. He would be calmer away from the house, where he could still catch the faintest trace of her scent and where his heart had no choice but to wallow in the pain of her absence.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Are they flirting?” Dawn’s shocked whisper drew Bella out of her momentary funk. They both regarded the picture in front of them, small blonde Buffy was grinning as she recounted a story to Charlie- it was almost comical how different they looked. She was all air and bounce, a butterfly of enthusiasm to Charlie’s solid, mustachioed stoicism.

Bella scrunched her nose at the ickiness of the thought but then looked closer at her dad. Was that a smile she could see forming under the ‘stache? He was walking straighter, the perpetual slouch almost gone from his shoulders as he listened to Dawn’s older sister. He seemed almost younger as his limbs flowed loosely with movement, none of his usual pinched closed-off demeanor was coming through. Whatever was happening to him, Bella decided that she liked it. Just like Renee, Charlie deserved to be happy.

She looked at her new friend, and yes she could definitely count Dawn as being in the friend category. The tall brunette’s eyes were narrowed in thought as she regarded her sister’s back, carefully sipping her green tea as the numerous bracelets on her arm jingled with the movement.

Bella decided to break the silence. “So what’s up with the collection?” she pointed out the rows and rows of leather and metal on Dawn’s arm.

Dawn turned to look at her, deciding to put away the perpetual mystery of Buffy’s love life for later. “Some of them are protection amulets, some are just bracelets.”

Bella nodded, she knew that some people really believed in that sort of thing. “Is there a special significance to the arm you wear the bracelets on?”

Dawn cocked an eyebrow as she regarded her, and just as Bella was about to move on to an another topic she answered. “When I was younger, I used to cut myself. Besides protecting me, the bracelets do a pretty good job of covering up the scary psycho part of my past.”

“Oh…” what could Bella really say to something like that? Obviously Dawn had decided to trust her with something important; something that not a lot of people would have shared with somebody they met a couple of hours back. So she moved closer to the brunette and gave her a friendly bump with her hip.

“We’re all a little psycho inside,” she told her with a small smile.

Dawn’s face lit up at the new hurdle their fledgling friendship had just overcome. It was probably the infamous Summers instinct, but she could feel that Bella was somebody she would definitely like in the long run. The girl’s vulnerability called to Dawn’s protective tendencies and her quiet, shy demeanor definitely meant that Dawn would be the loud one in the friendship. She felt rather than knew that Bella would be a loyal friend, sticking by her crazy escapades and sharing troubled times together.  
So she entwined their arms again as they followed their most likely flirting elders.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked her.

Bella started at her question and just as she was about to give the standard denial line, she thought about how Dawn had really opened up to her and for the first time in her life- Bella Swan decided to really trust a girl.

“I had a fight with my boyfriend,” deciding to skip over the vampire parts, Bella just imparted the gist of the matter.

Dawn frowned “What happened?”

“He and his family… They uh, they lead a pretty alternative lifestyle. He thinks that I could get hurt and that I don’t belong with them,” vampirism was as alternative as they came right?

Bella continued “But here’s the thing, I know everything that they do. And I’m not scared, I went into this relationship with my eyes open. And now that we’ve run into some problems, he’s talking about breaking up for my own good.”

Dawn stopped her, “They’re not hurting you right?”

Bella shook her head “No, I got hurt by accident. A stupid, clumsy accident that was my own fault.”

They started walking again; thankfully Buffy and Charlie were too busy talking to notice them though Bella did see the small blonde shoot her a worried glance. But she was too far away to hear them right?

Dawn cleared her throat, “If you’re dating, then he shouldn’t be trying to make decisions for the both of you by himself. A relationship should be an equal partnership, it’s not one person making the decisions by himself.”

Bella sighed, deep inside she knew that Edward was very wrong to try to make life changing decisions for them both by himself. There were moments where her anger at his bullheadedness made her want to slap him silly, but Bella Swan was a quiet, shy girl who would never do something like that.

They turned the corner as they saw Buffy drag Charlie into a store, Bella noticed that her dad didn’t protest much.

They sat on the bench outside the store, Bella slouching forward as usual, auburn ponytail swinging in the gentle wind. Dawn was loose limbed as she looked at the world in front of her with a fiery defiance, one arm slung on the back of the bench and long legs crossed at the knee.

“Hey Bells,” she called. Bella smiled, Dawn had taken to using her dad’s nickname for her and she realized that she didn’t really mind.

“Yeah?”

“Whatever happens, you know that I’m here for you right?”

Bella turned back to her with a warm smile, “I know… Wanna hear something funny?”

Dawn grinned “Always.”

“I think that you’re the first real friend I’ve made in a long while,” Bella coughed, a little embarrassed at confessing her anti-social tendencies. Sure she was friendly with Alice, but that was only because she was dating Edward. Outside the Cullens Bella didn’t really have any friends. Jacob was a constant heartache, once upon a time they were best friends and now that he had developed feelings for her- Bella didn’t really feel right continuing to be as close as they used to be.

Dawn gave her a playful punch “Aww, that’s okay. My best friend’s my sister, we can be losers together.”

Bella laughed at her friend’s antics and the moment was shattered as she caught a beautiful, ethereally pale face in the reflection of the shop. She whipped her head around and sure enough there they were, the Cullens in all their glory going into the music store across the street from where Bella and Dawn were sitting. Jasper and Alice, Rose and Emmett and Carlisle leading them all with a laughing Esme by his side. Bella quickly tried to ascertain whether Edward was with him, but try as she might she didn’t see her wayward boyfriend with his family.

“Holy shit…” Dawn’s whisper of incredulity brought Bella back to reality, the Cullens had by that time already entered the shop.

She sighed, knowing that her friend was probably amazed at the otherworldly beauty of the family just like everyone else in town.

“That’s Edward’s family, he’s not with them” she tried to explain.

Dawn’s wide blue eyes turned to Bella, “I hope you’re not dating a vampire.”

Bella gaped, opening and closing her mouth like a stranded fish out of water. “Umm…” she tried to stall for time. What was she supposed to reply to something like that?


	5. Chapter 5

“Um….”

Dawn narrowed her eyes at her friend, “Bella don’t you dare lie to me about this.”

A little shakily, Bella nodded her head. It wasn’t like Dawn didn’t already realize that the Cullens were vampires, plus Bella figured that she’d be able to tell her about their vegetarian status herself. Therefore she was a little shocked when her friend, who she expected to start asking her questions just sat back on the bench and crossed her arms with a long suffering sigh.

Bella chanced a look at the brunette, Dawn had closed her eyes and tilted her head back in deep thought. Raising an eyebrow at her friend’s lack of reaction Bella reached out and touched Dawn’s elbow, “hey, you okay?”

Dawn opened one baleful eye, “Oh yeah. I’m freakin peachy keen. I move to a new town, make friends with a cool chick, do the whole bonding thing- only to realize that she’s dating a motherfreaking vampire!”

Her voice rose in pitch and she pinched her nose in exasperation, “okay, okay, okay…” she muttered to herself rubbing her temples in an effort to calm down.

Turning to Bella again, Dawn decided to continue. “So I guess they don’t eat humans right?”

A flabbergasted Bella could only shake her head.

A thoughtful look on her features, Dawn stared off into the distance “Vegetarian vampires, alright… We can deal with that, we’ve already dealt with that…”

A bit calmer by the end of her rant, she turned to Bella and clapped her hands in a decision- “Well okay, this is definitely unexpected but not new. We hoped to get away from the heebie jeebies, but I guess it’s just our luck that we stumble onto vamps everywhere we go. Now, promise me that they’re not dangerous,” she turned to Bella and asked her in a serious tone.

Dutifully Bella replied “they’re not dangerous, I promise.”

“Kay then, we’ll deal.” Dawn grinned. “Oh, I cannot wait for Buffy’s reaction about this!” She looked almost gleeful as she glanced at the shop where an excited Buffy’s voice could be heard through the windows.

Bella took Dawn’s hand, “Dawnie, I don’t know how you know about vampires, but please don’t tell Buffy yet.”

Dawn looked at her carefully “Why not?”

Bella took a deep breath, trying to explain why she was still protecting the Cullens no matter how much Edward might have hurt her. “They’re good people Dawn, even if a little unusual. I know that they’re going to want to meet you, especially if you already know about vampires. Just…” she bit her lips nervous “just, let me talk to them first okay?”

Dawn took a deep breath, maybe she was going to really regret this but she decided to take a chance on her new friend. Buffy would understand the need to protect your friends, but either way- Dawn was giving Bella a deadline to talk to the vamps, and after that she and Buffy were coming to see them on their own.

“Alright Bells, but it’s only cause I trust you. I’m giving you three days to make sure they’re ready for us, and after that I’m talking to Buffy myself.”

Bella squeezed her hand in gratitude “Thanks Dawnie.”

Dawn smiled her usual big grin “Yeah yeah, Dawnie’s the shizzle until she gets pummeled to death by her sister.”

Bella laughed as said sister chose that moment to reappear from the store, looking particularly harmless she was almost bouncing with excitement as she hugged Dawn.

“Oh my god, guess what? This store has the most adorable decorations you could find in it! I’ve already bought the curtains for my room and the living room, some kitchenware and a few necessities,” Buffy grinned as she listed her new purchases.

Dawn hugged her sister with a smile and asked the pertinent question, seeing as how Buffy was by herself.  
“That’s great Buff, but uh… Where’s Bella’s dad?”

“Oh, Charlie’s coming. He’s trying to do the gentleman thing, so he’s carrying the bags to the car,” Buffy laughed with real mirth.

Just then, the shop door opened again and at first Bella thought that the bundle of shopping bags was floating on air. There were so many of them, and a grunt of effort could be heard as they were squeezed through the door.

“Oh my god Buffy! This is what you call essentials?” Dawn smacked her sister on the arm as she moved to help Charlie who was practically buried under the new purchases.

Her sister gave an unrepentant shrug “Hey, you know my shopping habits,” and moved to help Charlie and Dawn, taking some of the bags off them.

“I’m good, I can carry everything,” Charlie’s voice was a little muffled by the bags.

Bella laughed “Dad, I can’t even hear you behind the bags,” she took some of the bags too as they headed back to the cars.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside the music store, Alice smiled to herself as another vision hit her. This one had Dawn arguing with a boy, the heat in both of their eyes signaling a change in their relationship that would affect the Cullens, the Swans and the Summers. She flipped through the CD rack idly wondering whether a Linkin Park cd was worth twenty bucks.

Carlisle moved to her, followed by Esme.  
“I hope that you had a good reason for us coming into town,” he asked her gently.

Alice’s tinkling laugh echoed within the half empty store “Dawn needed to see us.” She impulsively gave her adopted dad a bone crushing hug, “Oh Carlisle, their coming means so much more than you think. They’re really going to change things around here,” she laughed again as she glided towards the exit, the everpresent Jasper following his mate silently.

Esme took Carlisle’s hand as they regarded their children.

“There’s a saying that Nurse Ratchett usually says whenever talking about her kids, I never thought about it but she was right,” he murmured to his wife.

She raised her head to meet his eyes “what’s the saying?”

“The bigger the children, the bigger the challenges.”

Esme laughed as she snuggled to his side, “They’re good kids Carlisle, just a little more special than others.”

He smiled as he saw the gently bickering Rosalie and Emmett fight over which dvds to pick for family movie night.

“You’re right about that.”

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday morning Buffy smiled as she drove the car through the town to the high school, a half asleep Dawn in the passenger seat sat clutching a thermos filled with the black goodness known as coffee. Buffy turned the wheel as her thoughts turned to the past weekend, they had spent it decorating the new house, unpacking their belongings and joking around in an atmosphere of joyful anticipation of their new life.

After leaving the store the Swans made sure that they arrived at their house safely and helped them carry the bags inside. Before they left Bella had been the one to surprise Buffy, she initiated goodbye hugs smiling as she moved to sit beside her dad.  
Buffy herself had given a little wave to Charlie who smiled and nodded at her, Dawn gave a loud wolf whistle as they pulled away making Buffy blush.  
She then spent the next ten minutes chasing her shrieking and laughing sister around their house as they completely ruined their neighbors’ first impressions of them.

On Saturday, an orange truck pulled up by their house, Bella walking up to their front steps in a clean green polo shirt and jeans, her bright auburn hair swaying in the breeze as her face glowed with health, rang the bell. A paint splattered Dawn pulled her into the house, laughing as she commandeering Bella’s help at painting her room. They spent the whole day painting Dawn and Buffy’s rooms, unpacking the basics of the house and baking cookies. Well alright, it was more like Bella was baking and Dawn tried to learn. Buffy just stayed out of their way, coming downstairs to model her ‘first day of school’ outfits, both girls giving their opinions on the outfit that made Buffy look the most professional. After walking Bella home, Buffy did a quick patrol of Forks- nothing outright evil jumped at her and satisfied she went home.

On Sunday, Dawn and Buffy just stayed inside- getting ready for Forks High School, unpacking their closets and being silly. Sunday’s patrol was just as uneventful as Saturday’s, a Brachen family were told about her presence and were asked to come to her with any problems they might have.

A honk brought Buffy back to reality, the driver of the car behind her was getting impatient as he signaled for her to move. Buffy smiled widely as she pulled away from the now green light, Dawn snorted as she woke up from her light doze, a light drool strand hanging from the side of her mouth.

Buffy wrinkled her nose “Oh now that’s real attractive right there Dawnie.”

Dawn glared at her sister “Don’t make me smack you. When’d you become a morning person anyway?”

Buffy winked at her “It’s the nine to five lifestyle kiddo, it either makes you into a morning person or it kills you.”

Dawn smiled slightly as she huddled deeper into her dark grey hoodie with scull motifs printed everywhere on her back.

“Boy they weren’t kidding when they said that Forks doesn’t get much sunshine,” the sleep deprived brunette muttered as she gazed out the window. The steady, gray drizzle fell steadily, making a blurry curtain between their car and the real world.

“Nope, no more sunshine for us” Buffy chirped.

Dawn gave her the evil eye.

A dark building rose before them, the sign proclaiming it to be Forks High School. Dawn shook her head at the dreariness of the school.  
“Yeah, they’re really all about the cheerfulness here, aren’t they?”

Buffy laughed as she drove past the various groups of students trudging their way to class. Dawn spotted Bella standing beside her orange truck, looking for somebody.  
“Hey let me out here, I see Bella” she asked her sister grabbing her backpack from the back.

“Kay Dawnie, make sure to be careful. Here’s your schedule, and the locker combo” Buffy gave her two pieces of paper. The principal emailed Dawn her schedule ahead of time, a part of the condition for them to come to Forks had been that Dawn concentrate mainly on arts subjects, so Dawn had spent around two weeks picking out the subjects she would need for her degree in Washington U.

She took the papers and just as she was jumping out of the car Buffy called out after her “Any problems and make sure to call my cellphone, this is why you have yours. And try to make a good impression,” she grinned at her sister.

Dawn gave her two thumbs up “I always make a good impression,” she shooed her away with one hand, “now go. You’re cramping my style.”

Buffy laughed as she pulled away from the girls, her car swerved into the faculty parking lot as she sung to the radio.

She turned off the ignition, and pulling her briefcase out she briefly checked her makeup in the mirror. Everything looked good, so she set the car alarm and slamming the door on her baby she headed off to the administration office.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy looked at the clock above her desk, it was almost lunchtime and she was really looking forward to eating. First day jitters had prevented her from eating her usual breakfast and now she was starving. No matter what happened in her life, she was still a slayer and she still had the metabolism of one.

Principal Green walked past her office, giving her a thumbs up through the glass, Buffy gave him a wave of acknowledgment. It had come as a real shock to the administration that the new guidance counselor was a young, pretty blonde woman. When Buffy had come in to introduce herself, it took a full five minutes for Green to stop stuttering and fully welcome her to the administration. Unfortunately the school secretary had decided that she didn’t like the new faculty member and every time Buffy had to go for a new student file in the communal filing cabinet, Mrs. Cope trailed after her with the meanest look that Buffy had ever seen on a living person.

The intercom buzzed on her desk, Mrs. Cope’s snide voice rang through Buffy’s office as she asked “Miss Summers, there’s a last minute addition to your appointments. Do you want to see her before lunch or afterward?”

Buffy sighed, it figured that the old witch would try to keep Buffy away from food for as long as she could. She decided not to give her any ammunition as she replied sweetly “Send her in Mrs.Cope, I’m not that hungry anyway.”

She straightened her desk, pencils on the right, papers on the left. No need for the students to see her habitual messiness. A soft knock sounded on her door, she called out “Come in!” and leaned back on her chair, a warm smile ready for the student who wanted to see a guidance counselor.

A dark haired girl came in, so tiny and small boned that Buffy felt tall standing up to shake her hand. And that was a first in her life. From her average sized parents, to her freakishly tall sister and gigantic ex-boyfriends- Buffy Summers never felt tall standing next to someone.

‘Oh shit,’ the girl’s handshake was firm but Buffy could feel the coldness of her skin. She frowned briefly, maybe the girl was just cold and it was nothing supernatural.

Looking into the girl’s eyes, Buffy quickly retracted her previous statement and changed her opinion. This was definitely supernatural, with eyes like that there was no way in hell that the girl was human.

Buffy glanced at folder labeled ‘Alice Cullen’ and smiled warmly at the girl.

“I know that you’re aware of what I am,” the girl’s musical voice sounded, destroying Buffy’s opportunity to open the conversation with a cool quip.

“Yeah, so why does a vampire want to see a guidance counselor?” Buffy raised an eyebrow, one hand inconspicuously fingering the stake taped to the underside of her table.

Alice shook her head, “I’m not doing this right” she raised her eyes to meet Buffy’s stern gaze, “we’re different from the vampires you know.”

“Oh yeah? How’s that?” Buffy kept her voice carefully neutral.

“We don’t eat humans,” Alice replied.

Buffy scoffed “I know vampires that don’t drink human blood.”

Alice’s eyed widened with hurt at her scornful rebuttal, “Oh… I don’t think I can do this properly.”

“Do what?” Buffy asked her, leaning forward in her chair, elbows raised she steepled her hands.

Alice stood up, “I think Carlisle would be better for this,” she moved towards the door.

“Wait!” Buffy ground out before the vampire could turn the knob.

“What did you want?”

Alice turned back to her, “My family, we uh… We’re special, and my dad wanted to talk to you.”

“Carlisle’s your dad?” Buffy asked her, trying to decipher what this girl wanted.

“Yeah, Carlisle’s my adopted dad,” Alice smiled with obvious fondness.

The pixie like girl moved towards Buffy, the slayer stood still even as she eyed the preternaturally fast vampire standing way too close to her. With the activation of the Sunnydale potentials, her strength and reflexes had grown to almost twice their previous levels. She knew that if it came down to a fight, she could take down the smaller girl.

Alice picked up a pen and Buffy’s bright pink notepad, she raised a curious eyebrow at her choice of stationery colors.  
Buffy gave a defensive shrug of her shoulders, it wasn’t her fault that she got bored easily. Alice smiled as she wrote something down in a beautiful cursive. Putting the pen and paper down, she turned to leave.

“Stop. How long have you been in this school?”

Alice’s dark head didn’t turn to face Buffy as she answered “Two years. And no, I’ve never fed on anybody.”

She motioned to the notepad with an elegant sweep of her hand “Look that name up, I know you have records of previous watchers. If you want to know more, call the number- it’s my cell phone. You don’t have to talk to anybody else until you’re ready.”

She turned the doorknob and as she put her foot out the door, Buffy’s low voice reached her vampiric hearing.

“If you hurt anybody, you know that I’ll be coming after you right?”

Just as softly, Alice answered her “Yeah I know…” Turning her head at the last second before she completely closed the door behind her she called out to a still standing Buffy, “Nobody else knows that you’re the slayer, and I won’t tell them until you’re ready.”

A surprised Buffy looked at the rapidly leaving back of the small girl, she turned her head to look at her notepad. In an envy enducing handwriting, Alice had written down ‘Carlisle Cullen 1643-1666. Born and died in London, England.’ Right below the name she had written her name down, along with her cell phone number and a smiley face. Buffy chuckled, she had drawn fangs dripping with blood on the smiling symbol.


	6. Chapter 6

11:30 a.m.

Dawn leaned forward on her desk, she leaned backwards on her chair. Dawn pretty much just started rocking back and forth on the chair in the faint hopes that maybe she’d fall down and get a concussion, which would be a totally great excuse to get out of class earlier and not die of boredom.

Bella kicked the back of her chair and hissed “Stop it!”

The Spanish teacher, Ms.Guarez gave them both a dirty look, Dawn stopped her movements. No need to antagonize the teachers on the first day.

Looking around the class, she began to catalog the students she had already met. There was Mikey, the dude following around Bella like a lovesick puppy. Eric, the Chinese student newspaper geek- he had an overflow of enthusiasm that was kind of annoying. And of course, there was Jessica and her little minion- Angela. Naively Bella introduced them as friends, but the looks they gave definitely made Dawn sit up and take notice of the two girls.

 

9 a.m.

Walking into the school, it was Jessica and Eric they first met, and the sight of a laughing Bella definitely made them stop in their tracks.

“Hey Swan, you’re in a good mood today” Eric’s voice sounded snide and overtly curious.

Bella though didn’t notice or maybe she had just gotten used to it so she smiled and nodded at Dawn “Guys, this is my friend Dawn- she’s going to be going to school with us.” 

She pointed out Jessica “This is Jess, she’ll be in your art history class”, and the widely grinning Eric introduced himself, gripping Dawn’s hand with his own clammy one he declared “my my, Bella. Here I thought that you’d be the hottest thing to come to this school, but Dawn is a vision of loveliness…” 

Dawn smiled, barely managing to keep the ‘Yuck’ silent as she ripped her hand out of his sleazy paw.

Jessica sidled up to them “Bella, you’ve been making friends outside of the Cullens I see…”

The smile rapidly fell off her friend’s face so Dawn decided to take charge of the situation “Yeah, we’re like Roger and Ebert... Close,” she hugged Bella to her with one arm, gave a wiggle of her fingers to Jessica and began dragging Bella away from the mutely staring group.

She let go of her once they got away from the assholes, but then she sighed and decided to apologize.

“Listen Bells, I’m sorry about being a bitch back there. But people like them just get on my last nerve”, Dawn scratched her elbow looking at her suddenly saddened friend.

Bella sighed and with her eyes downcast she shrugged “It’s fine, it’s just every time I think I’m over trying to be friends with them…” she trailed off.

Quickly deciding to change the subject, Dawn dropped her backpack on the ground beside their lockers. Thankfully Buffy talked to principal Green and he had decided to give them adjoining lockers, he actually smiled as he commended Bella on making new friends. Dawn realized that Bella wasn’t really kidding when she said that she didn’t have a lot of friends.

Rooting around in her backpack Dawn came across what she had been looking for, an advertisement for a boutique opening in Seattle next weekend.

“Hey Bells, there’s a pretty cool shop opening in Seattle. Come with me, I know Buffy’s going to want to go shopping- it’ll be fun.” Dawn looked up from her crouching position.

Bella was standing there silently with such longing on her face that Dawn was surprised her heart wasn’t jumping out of her chest right there in the hallway. She followed Bella’s gaze to a very pretty, extremely pale guy standing across the hall from them. He had the sort of messy bronze hairdo that would have taken a living guy an hour in front of a mirror to accomplish. With the prettiness of these vampires, Dawn supposed that he died with his hair like that and it had stayed the same shape for the last couple of hundred years. A stray thought popped into her head, she had read somewhere that hair and nails still grew for some time after a person's death. How long did hair grow on a corpse? She eyed what looked to be Bella’s honey thoughtfully, maybe she could ask him? Having died already, and with hair like that- he must be aware of the finer points of vampire haircare.

She stood up, Bella and the dude were still engaged in their stare off. None too gently she nudged her friend in his direction, “Go talk to him!”

Bella’s terrified gaze met Dawn’s amused one. “I can’t just walk up to him like nothing’s happened…” she hissed.

Dawn gave her a gentle shove in his direction “ Go ask him why he’s being such a boob when his stare could definitely rival Angel’s during his angst fest with Buffy.”

Bella stared at her with confusion and the taller brunette noticed that her friend was still not moving. Dawn decided to be rude and take matters into her own hands.

Gripping her arm she began dragging Bella towards the still creepily standing vampire all the while muttering to herself “Couldn’t we do this after lunch? Noooo, we have to make with the angsty staring before it's even ten in the morning! Going to be late for my first day of class…”

Having dragged a now silent Bella up to the guy, Dawn parked herself firmly in between them.

She turned to the dude, “What’s your name, oh silently staring one?”

He turned to her, eyes never leaving Bella’s face. “Edward…”

Big time deja-vu on the Buffy-Angel flashbacks.

Dawn decided to intervene before the silence smothered them all, shoving her hand unceremoniously at Edward she proclaimed “I’m Dawn Summers, Bella’s new friend.”

The surprised vampire shook her hand, the coolness of his hand not bothering Dawn now that she knew his condition. “Yes I know, your sister’s the guidance counselor.”

Dawn narrowed her eyes, the patented Summers ‘Talk or I’ll beat you to death with a shovel’ glare coming through full force, “Really? That’s fascinating, tell me more about how you know about me and my sister.”

Edward’s panicked gaze swung between the glaring relative he had already managed to alienate and his girlfriend that he was currently on a break with.

Dawn made a ‘let’s get to it’ gesture with her hands, “I’m listening…”

At that point Bella snapped out of her lusty boyfriend induced funk and began shoving Dawn away from Edward who was still trying to come up with a good explanation for his ‘foot in mouth disease’.

“We don’t want to be late for classes, come on Dawn. You promised Buffy that you’d make a good impression on the teachers,” said the still shoving Bella.

Dawn whirled around and glared once more at the gaping Edward for good measure.

“Come on short stuff,” she said to Bella and linking their arms they began walking forward to their first shared class. A small smile played on Dawn’s face, it was kinda funny how much she was rubbing off on her shy friend. Besides, it was always fun to confuse vampires, they tended to think that they had the market on ‘mystique and enigma’ only to themselves, it was always great to mess with their preconceptions.

 

12 p.m.

*Finally*… Dawn sighed and gathered her stuff, already planning on what to devour for lunch in the cafeteria. 

Bella had been talking about salad bars and whatnot and all Dawn really wanted to know was whether they had meat there. Sometimes, she really thought that she had a part of Buffy’s slayer constitution in her genes- the awesomely fast metabolism was both a blessing and a disguise. She tended to pile up her plate to the very top, and yet never gained any weight. Bad thing was that she got hungry very easily and half the time she daydreamed, she dreamed about food instead of hot guys like most girls her age.

She glanced at the door, Bella was already there patiently waiting for Dawn. 

As she passed through the multitude of desks, she was stopped by Ms.Guarez, “Miss Summers, may I suggest that you pay more attention in class next time. Seeing as how this is your first day and all, I would absolutely hate for you to fall behind,” the teacher smiled and Dawn felt ashamed for fooling around earlier.

“I’m sorry Ms.Guarez, it’s just first day jitters. You know how it is, new kids, new school. I’ll do better I promise,” Dawn tried to convey as much sincerity as she could into her eyes.

The teacher nodded her head and moved back towards her desk, slightly mollified. “See that you do. Have a good lunch with Miss Swan.”

Dawn gave her a salute and bounced out the door where Bella was eying her with worry, “what was that all about?”

“Don’t worry about me grasshopper, it’s all good” Dawn grinned as they headed towards the cafeteria.

As they entered through the doors Dawn could automatically see the Cullens, they were sitting in their own group, their table apart from others. Years of living on the Hellmouth and Dawn could see the multitude of students sending covert little looks at her and Bella and back at the Cullens, she guessed that the whole of the student body had heard about Edward and Bella being on the verge of a breakup and were now salivating about the gossip worthy scene in front of them.

Dawn glanced at Bella, the auburn haired girl was tightly gripping the tray, her nerves turning her knuckles white with indecision. Leaning down, she whispered into her shorter friend’s ear “Listen, we do whatever you want to. Are you ready to sit with them?”

Bella looked up at Dawn, indecision marring her features and then shook her head, the curls of her hair bouncing slightly with the vehemence of her statement.

Dawn grinned and shifted her tray, “Alrighty then, we do our own thing. I’m down with that. Hey look, there’s Mikey,” she pointed out a frantically waving Mike Henry. 

For some reason he was sitting away from Sleazy Eric as she had taken to dubbing him in her head and the Bitch twins, Jessica and Angela. Dawn gave him a wiggle of her hands back, and leaned back to tell Bella quietly “I’ll meet you at his table.”

“Are you sure about this?” Bella looked slightly panicked at sitting with the boy who had pursued her unstopping for the last year and a half.

“Meh, he’s harmless. Besides, you told me that Edward gets a bit jealous of you and Mikey boy over there. We need the big brooder to hurry up and realize that he can’t do without you, so a little bit of jealousy will be just the ticket” she grinned at her sneaky ways.

Bella glanced at a frowning Edward and at the practically bouncing Mike, making a decision she steeled her shoulders and made her way to his table.

“Atta girl,” Dawn called after her and chose a slightly different route to join them for lunch.

Making sure to pass by the Cullens’ table she slowed down and glared at Edward, leaning down at their table she whispered in his direction “I’m watching you buddy,” and walked off to join a pale Bella and a practically salivating with excitement Mike.

As she walked off, she heard Rosalie snort into her water bottle “I like her, she’s feisty.”

Dawn’s step had a little more bounce than before as she joined her new friends for lunch.


	7. Chapter 7

Buffy sat in her car, listening to soft music as a relaxing post-workday wind down. 

Invariably, her mind shifted to Alice Cullen and what her visit might entail for the Summers girls. She hadn’t felt evil to Buffy’s senses and years of fighting the worst things that hell could throw at her had honed her senses enviably. Plus, there was that name- Carlisle Cullen, it was bugging her, itching at her senses like a pebble that she couldn't get out, couldn't scratch. She knew that she had either heard the name before or had read about it, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember where.

She heard her sister coming before she got the visual confirmation. Dawn hopped inside with her usual level of noisiness. After slamming the door, she huffed in annoyance as she threw her backpack to the backseat. She then clicked her seatbelt shut with jerking movements and began examining her nails. There was a silence while both Summers sisters sat in the car, Dawn doing an admirable job of pretending like she didn't know why Buffy was stalled. 

Buffy finally bit the bullet and raised an inquiring eyebrow, “had a good day?”

“Uh huh, the usual… Sleazy boys, mean girls and yours truly navigating the halls with her new friend,” Dawn still wasn’t meeting her eyes, gaze intent on her black nail polish.

Inwardly, Buffy was cheering in triumph as her sister continued examining her manicure. Dawn could never lie to her directly, something about Buffy’s stare being a direct inheritance from Joyce, and God knew Dawnie had never been able to lie to their mother. So the youngest Summers had a pretty clear tell- whenever hiding something, she would avoid her sister’s infamous gaze like a medieval peasant avoiding the Bubonic Plague.

Buffy smirked as she put the key into the ignition and began steering their way home. There were very few things that Dawn would try to hide from her: it was still too early for her to fail a class, Principal Green didn’t try to talk to her about her sister’s behavioral issues as she was leaving the school and the last and most likely explanation was if Dawn had found something out about the supernatural forces in Forks and for reasons unknown was keeping her findings from her sister. Combined with her sister’s sudden closeness to Bella Swan and Dawn’s unwavering loyalty to her few friends, Buffy figured out that Bella was asking her sister to keep a secret. Taking a stab in the rapidly lightening dark, Buffy casually remarked “So I met a vampire today at school. Turns out that there’s a nest in forks, they even call themselves a family. It’s all very Godfather for vamps.”

Dawn’s shoulders stiffened as she mumbled out “oh yeah? How do you figure that?”

Inwardly Buffy crowed in triumph, she knew it! Years of working with secretive teenagers had really taught her important things about their psychology, plus the fact that she could clearly remember herself being one of those secretive teenagers didn’t hurt either.

She cleared her throat, “Well, they’re talking about me going to meet their _‘father’_ ,” she made air quotes with the hand not on the steering wheel. 

“It’s all very Don Corleone, I think they’re planning to whack me once I enter their evil lair,” Buffy grinned.

Dawn’s head whipped up, gaze wide with what Buffy suspected to be barely concealed panic “No no no! No whacking of the older sister, ever!”

Buffy smirked, “Dawn Marie Summers, it’s nice to know that you still care… Now care to tell me what you’re hiding from me?”

Dawn shook her head slowly, “I can’t, I promised Bella. But she promised me that either she’ll tell you within the next three days, or I can do it myself.”

Buffy eyed her carefully, slayer senses keeping clear of the other cars on the road. “Is this something dangerous?”

“No, Bella told me that it isn’t. And I believe her, I don’t think she’d lie to me.”

Buffy drummed her nails against the steering wheel, their house was visible up ahead on the road. “Does this have something to do with vampires attending Forks High School?”

Her younger sister swallowed audibly, “yes. But please don’t make me say anything beyond that, I’d feel like crap betraying a friend’s promise.”

The slayer cleared her throat, she knew that her relationship with her younger sister was unorthodox. She was her guardian, but yet she couldn’t assume the role of her mother. Dawn was at that age where she needed a confidante to come to with any problems she might have, not a disciplinarian to avoid at all costs.

She pulled into the driveway and killed the ignition. Turning to her sister she took Dawn’s left hand into her own two and looked into her eyes, “Dawnie, I trust you. You’re eighteen years old and you’ve lived through enough apocalypses with me. So if you think that Bella’s secret isn’t dangerous, I’ll trust you enough not to pry. But I’m giving the two of you three days to come to me, either way I have to know what’s going on with these vamps, you understand?”

Dawn nodded her head and reached out to give her sister a hug, hiding a sniff she jumped out the car and headed into the house.

Buffy called out after her “I’m still going to dig into what Alice asked me to, I’m curious as hell!”

“Yeah yeah, I wouldn’t have you any other way” Dawn called back laughing as she raced up the stairs to her room.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

That evening Buffy picked up the phone and speed dialed a number, Faith’s husky voice answered the other line “Yo B, I was just about to call you myself!”

Buffy laughed, they were both a quarter of a century old and Faith still called her B. She didn’t know what needed to happen for the dark haired slayer to start calling her counterpart by her God given name, but at this point it was a comfort hearing the well worn greeting.

“Yeah, it’s your turn to call ya boob. What’s going on at your end?”

Faith laughed and Buffy could hear the sound of a door being closed, most likely Faith wanted some privacy for whatever she was about to impart.  
“There’s a problem…” her voice was low and Buffy panicked.

“What? What is it? Is it an apocalypse? Do you need me to come out of retirement?”

“Nah it ain’t that. Besides, the council’s good with their apocalypses, they got the newbs for that shit. Best trained bunch of girls I’ve ever seen,” a real fondness could be heard from the Boston slayer’s voice.

Buffy knew that Faith still worked for the council as an independent contractor, she and Robin would take twice yearly month long road trips around the country to pick up any newly activated slayers. Most of the time, Faith worked as a martial arts instructor in New York, something about the big city really made the people want to protect themselves and Faith’s classes were always full. Could have been her fighting expertise, or the fact that she wore itty bitty workout clothes to work- Buffy would never know.

“So what’s going on? What’s the what Faithie?”

Buffy grinned at Faith’s disgruntled snort, the dark haired slayer hated the fact that the blonde had come across her middle school year book where plain as day, her childhood nickname had been scrawled across the page in scrawling, block letters.

“Um… "

"Spit it out..."

"RobinproposedtomeandIdon’tknowwhattodo!”

“Whoaaaa, the Rob man’s planning to make an honest woman out of ya?” despite the rush of words from Faith, Buffy still had no problem deciphering her problem. She laughed at the very rarely heard terror coming through from Faith.

“Don’t laugh at me blondie, I’m not wife material! Hell, I don’t know anyone whose marriage is still standing!”

“Chill Fai, it’ll be fine. You guys have been living together for the last two years, what’s a piece of paper going to change?” Buffy addressed the heart of the matter. Despite Faith’s real fear of commitment, Robin had managed to somehow lull Faith’s boyfriend radar up to the point where she had moved into his house without even noticing it. Piece by piece her clothes had somehow migrated into his sprawling apartment. She spent weeks at his place without visiting her own and finally, six months into the arrangement she finally caught up to his sneaky ways and called Buffy raving about the audacity of the man. The blonde had put her on speakerphone and she and Dawn spent the afternoon trying to calm down the formerly rogue slayer, alternating between laughing at Faith’s indignation at what happened and trying to calm her down enough not to kill her boyfriend.

Eighteen months later they were still living together, this time with both of them realizing the fact. A year into their cohabitation it was Faith who brought in Kit Kat to live with them, a small calico kitten with a temper to rival the slayer’s. It was Robin who called Buffy this time, awed voice whispering the new developments in their life.

The blonde slayer smiled at her mystical sister’s predicament, she knew that the two of them loved each other fiercely, but she also knew that Robin with his more traditional world view would want to marry Faith. Buffy figured that the man couldn’t figure out a way to trick Faith into marrying him so he went about doing it the normal way, with a ring and a proposal.

Buffy cleared her voice, “Do you love him?”

With no hesitation whatsoever Faith answered her “hell yeah, you know I do.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Buffy countered.

There was silence on the other line then a hesitant Faith spoke up. “Fuck B, I think I’m getting married…”

Buffy grinned widely, if anybody deserved to be happy it was Faith. With her childhood on the streets and an abusive mother, it was a miracle that the dark haired slayer found a man as patient as Robin to slowly bring her out of her shell.

Buffy whooped in joy as Faith began laughing, “Congratulations! Fai, you’re like a sister to me- all I want is for you to be happy.”

They spent a few minutes discussing trivial matters and then Buffy got to the reason for her phone call, “Listen, I need a favour.”

“Whatsup?” Faith got down to business.

“I need you to look for a watcher named Carlisle Cullen,” she gave Faith his dates of birth and death and his location during his life.

Faith asked her “How urgent is this? I’m going to need to call some of the mini watchers, ask them to dig in the library.”

“As soon as possible.”

“Is there something weird going on in that town? I *told* you not to move to a town called Forks, there just has to be something freaky in a town named after cutlery!” Faith joked but Buffy knew that if she said that yes, there was something strange going on- chances were that Faith and Robin would show up on their doorstep at the next flight from New York.

“Nah, it’s cool. Just something I’m digging around in,” Buffy answered with a smile.

“Alrighty dude, just keep me in the know,” Faith didn’t dig further knowing that Buffy would open up if it was something she wanted others to know.

“I will, and congratulations again. I love you guys, give Rob a big hug for me ‘kay?” Buffy said her goodbyes to Faith’s good natured grumbles about her future husband and hung up smiling.

She walked to the kitchen and began preparing the ingredients for dinner, calling upstairs she yelled “Hey Dawn! Guess who’s getting married?”

Her sister’s curiousity got the best of her and a minute later she bounded down the steps, hair in a bun and a towel around her chest. She was getting ready for the shower as Buffy piqued her need to know instinct.

“Who is it?” Dawn flopped on a chair.

“Faith and Robin,” Buffy got herself ready for the incredulous yells about to follow the announcement.

Dawn just stuffed a grape into her mouth from the plate sitting on the counter, “Oh cool. I already knew that Rob was going to propose, I pretty much figured that she’d bitch and moan but end up saying yes.”

She hopped off the chair and began trudging her way back to her bathroom, leaving an open mouthed Buffy gaping after her. She chased after her younger sister, “Dawn wait up!”

Dawn stopped and turned around, somehow managing to look regal despite being clad only in a bright yellow towel.

“Yes?”

“How’d you know?”

“Oh, me and Robin picked out the ring together online. It’s real pretty,” she grinned.

Buffy gasped, “You knew that he was going to propose, you picked out the ring with him, and you didn’t tell me????”

Dawn nodded, “well yeah. We wanted it to be a surprise,” she put a consoling hand on Buffy’s shoulder, “and I know you. You can’t keep a secret, especially from Faith.”

She shrugged in a ‘what can you do?’ gesture and made her way back to her shower.

Buffy just stood at the bottom of the stairs for a few minutes. Goddamn! Was she really getting that old, that her younger sister planned her best friend’s proposal behind her back and Buffy didn’t notice?


End file.
